Nature is buzzing around the field school. The yearly show put on by fireflies is in full swing. After dark there are thousands of them over the field, blinking on and off and looking like a galaxy of stars you can reach out and touch. Were my photography skills developed beyond point and click, I’d [...]
One of the guys in camp this week hit a moose with his car. He was coming up route 11 toward Masardis after dark and saw some moose on the side of the road. Luckily, he slowed way down to about 5 miles per hour before a moose stepped in front of his car. The [...]
This is my favorite photo from our May canoe trip on the Allagash. I got up at 3:57 am in order to wake someone on the trip at 4, and the light was just coming over the ridge to the northeast of the pond. It was cold, but I grabbed my camera and took a [...]
This morning we start our Bushman course. The focus is on the primitive skills needed to live in the north woods during the warm weather months. Primitive is occasionally used as a synonym for inferior, but a quick check of the dictionary will rectify that. It is from the latin Primus, meaning the first of [...]
After a busy week we finished the Woodsman course yesterday. The weather was fantastic the whole week; one rainy morning, but otherwise sun and warm days with cool nights in the 40’s. We had a bunch of animals come through camp, from deer and moose to the snowshoe hare’s who are hopping around the field [...]
Another 15″ brook trout caught in camp tonight. Roasting on a stick over the fire in front of the new reflector oven. A great week so far!
I’ve had a bunch of reflector ovens over the years and they’ve all shared one thing in common; bake pans that aren’t a standard size. After threatening to do so for several years, when we took off the river June 2nd I took a small, non-folding reflector oven and a standard half-sheet pan (13″ x [...]
We had a busy day yesterday working on fires, axe uses, wild edibles and campfire cooking. A guy on the course caught his first trout on a fly rod – a 12″ brookie, in the river right in front of camp. And on a dry fly, no less. One of the teaching assistants was riding [...]
Today begins our series of week long summer programs with the Woodsman course. It’s our general introductory course on all things bushcraft. Last night we welcomed everyone to camp with a huge batch of sourdough biscuits cooked in our new, giant, reflector oven. More on it later. Today we’ll be working on using axes and [...]
We had the pleasure of Nick Gallop’s company on our river trip last month. Nick has a school and blog in England called Skills For Wild Lives. He’s also a skilled artist, craftsman, woodsman, riverman, photographer and potential infomercial pitchman (more on this later). He’s writing up his trip journal on his blog complete with [...]
An axe gauge is a small tool with a triangular cut out used to measure the profile of an axe blade. Axes have different profiles for different jobs. For example, a splitting axe can be nearly triangular in shape, while a limbing axe has a much more narrow profile. Gauges were used to set and [...]
I have a hard time figuring out how to connect with people on social media sites. My quandary is whether to post things as me, Tim, or as my business, the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School. I want to be consistent. I want to not confuse people regarding who’s who and avoid creating a web-based split [...]
We made it back from the Allagash trip, finishing the spring Bushcraft Canoe Expedition Semester. Overall the trip was fantastic, but it didn’t look that way at the beginning. The first two days the black flies were terrible, but then it cooled off and they weren’t bad for this time of year. The fishing was [...]
Featured In:
Maine Wilderness Guides Organization Quality Endorsement Award
